Heart of the Goddess
by Kenjiro Minami
Summary: ***REVAMPED MODERN DAY HYRULE*** Link is a modern boy, living a modern life in a modern orphanage. He has friends, hobbies, wishes for family like every other modern orphan boy. Things are normal for the first seventeen years of life, but then suddenly take a dark turn, throwing this young, semi-reclusive adult into a world of unwanted adventures of fight, flight, love, and death.
1. Chapter 1

"Hng..."

A blonde teen of about seventeen groaned as he blinked open his blue eyes sleepily. He yawned and stretched, smacking his dry lips and wiping away the drool on his cheek as he lied in his bed for a while longer, debating about whether or not he had really heard the noise that had disturbed his sleep. The teen wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't heard it. He heard a lot of strange things. Or it might have been one of the boys in the rooms on either side or across the hall of him. They got pretty loud on the weekends.

Yeah. That must've been it.

About to fall asleep again, the blonde haired teen rolled over, closing his blue eyes as he thought _just one more year_ , when something or someone began pounding heavily on his door, frustration and anger clear in the heavy thuds that startled the blonde teen awake. They didn't even sound like knocks. More like a slow and broken cement drill was trying to drill away his door without success, making it bounce each time the drill hit solid wood instead of chipping it away.

As the drill kept pounding at the startled teen's door, a loud voice managed to boom even louder than the object attacking the orphaned boys door.

"LINK!"

Groaning, Link threw his pillow over his head, covering his ears with the stiff cotton pillow in an attempt to block out the sounds coming from the hallway. "What?!" He shouted, trying to be louder than the man behind his door.

The drill ceased its attack with one final, hard pound that Link could've sworn had made the door almost cave. "Get yer lazy ass up!" The man responsible for the attack shouted from behind the door. The familiarity of the voice woke Link up a small bit, the odd mix of an Old Southern Texas tongue with a New York Brooklyn accent and a wee bitta Irish thrown into the mix, the kind of accent hey couldn't tell was fake or not because he only spoke with it when he was especially annoyed. He knew that voice anywhere, and not just because the man who spoke with it could throw his voice across the ocean and still be heard from the land on the other side.

"But its Sunday, Coach," Link whined.

"Think about whatcha just said, chump," the accented voice growled from behind the door. "What happens on Sunday's?"

Link thought long and hard about it before his blue eyes widened. "Shit! What time is it, Coach?"

"Near noon, ya lazy bastard," the man behind the door responded. "Ya got ten minutes to be up and ready and at rehearsal, Link. I ain't given yer lazy ass a ride, either, so ya better hussle yer ass along, boy, cause ye got some sprintin' to do."

"Y-yes sir!" Link exclaimed, attempting and failing at jumping out of bed to get ready to go, ending up tangled and flailing like a caught fish in his bland and boring gray sheets, tumbled over the edge of the bed and on the floor. He heard a small and poorly concealed laugh from behind his door before heavy footsteps made their way down the hall.

Grumbling and cursing to himself, Link disentangled himself from his blankets before standing up. He straightened out his Pokémon Eeveelutions pajama shirt before rushing over to his closet, silently thinking over his previous action of straightening his clothes and finding it stupid as he tore off his shirt and hopped out of his pants before he made it to his shared closet with his roommate in the orphan home. He realized none of his own clothes were in there, Charles probably having not put them away for Link, yet, after getting sick of seeing them strewn about the room. Groaning, Link grabbed some of Charles' clothes, knowing they were the same size and hoping he wouldn't mind that he borrowed them for the day. He quickly got them on, hoping over to his shoes as he did, socks still on his feet from the day before, and slipped them on, not bothering with the laces as he quickly grabbed his satchel and instrument and ran out of his room, letting the door slam shut behind him.

•~•~•~•

"You're late, Link," a small voice said from behind the blonde boy as he was tuning up his instrument.

Link turned around from where he was currently setting up his stand to see a frail looking porcelain skinned girl with blue eyes and hair that was normally all brown, but she must've gotten a streak of green in it since Link had last seen her, because there was a splash of green peeking out from underneath her navy blue beanie where her brown bangs normally were. She didn't look like much - average beauty, average height, under average weight, seventeen years of age like Link, with a pretty average family, unlike Link. A pencil was tucked behind her left ear, and she was subtly biting her lower lip as she tuned her instrument. Where Link had a flute, the brown haired girl had a cello, one that was nearly just as tall as she and probably weighed twice as much, the heavy black leather case leaning against the wall behind her chair.

Link stared at her for a while, noticing the slightly troubled look in her eyes before he cocked a loose grin. "Always fashionably so, though, my dear sweet Sarah."

She frowned. "It's Sariah, Link, not Sarah," she corrected. "Four years and you still don't get it right."

He laughed. "Aw, come on, Sariah! I know your name! I just do it to mess with you!"

Sariah looked at him with those soft blue eyes of hers before scoffing and shaking her head, resisting a small chuckle as she went back to tuning her cello. Link grinned and turned around to begin unpacking and piecing his own instrument together, but was sent crashing backwards in surprise when he came face-to-chest with a man taller than he was. His music stand failed at cushioning his fall, bringing him more pain than anything, but he didn't much notice it as he tried to bring his heart back down out of his throat.

"C-Coach!" he exclaimed, shakily getting back up, picking his stand up with him. "The heck was that for?"

The six and a half feet tall man narrowed his umber eyes. His face had heavy scruff on it, a rich black in color, not quite a beard, yet. The hair that was on top of his head was thick and curly, black as night with a streak of red going through it, as though he had a Jewish and African sort of background. More likely African, for his skin was a nice chocolate colored brown, soft and appealing to the eyes and made him attractive no matter which way one swung sexually or romantically. He was a bit more than moderately muscular, muscles bulging slightly under his tight tee as he crossed his arms over his chest in his annoyance at the boy in front of him.

If you got past the demeaning look he sent everybody when he was annoyed or pissed, the Coach was a very lovable man who would give somebody all his attention if he felt they needed it. Which right now, he thought Link needed his attention, though it wasn't the good kind of attention.

"Whatcha goin ta say during our big show tomorrow, huh?" The tall and ripped man asked, scratching a little at his right bicep. "If yer late, what'll we tell te audience, huh? 'Sorry, mate, but er main performer could't make it 'cause 'e slept in late an' didn't wanna come. See ya'll next week durin our rescheduled big openin'.' Is tat what we'rea tell 'em? Most 'ikely, as I ain't goin' up tere ta wake yer ass up again, Link."

The blonde haired teen hung his head in shame at Coach's words. "Sorry…" he mumbled, not knowing what else to say regarding the situation.

The Coach huffed. "Sorry ain't gonna cut it. Be 'ere, or be square, Link."

The blonde teen nodded his head solemnly, but perked up when his hair was ruffled by a large hand. He smiled as Coach walked away, raising his voice and shouting a small "five minutes" before going back to his office. Bending down to pick up his flute case from off the floor, Link shot Sariah a glance when he heard her thoughtful humming.

"He always lets you off easy," she mused as she did a quick slide of her cello strings to make sure they pitched correctly. "Why is that?"

"Hm?" Link hummed as he began to piece together his flute. "Oh. It's 'cause I've known him for a really long time. Yeah. Since I was four. Orphanage would never let him adopt me or foster me since he didn't have a stable home, then, so he'd spoil me from within. He's like my unofficially adoptive adoptive father, see? We've done a lot together."

"Oh that's nice."

It was obvious that Link had been talking too long and had lost Sariah's interest by the way she had said that. Link rolled his eyes at her as he finished piecing his flute together and played a few off-key notes before frowning and tuning it up. Sariah had finished tuning her cello, and began to play a song she had been creating for some time on her cello. Once Link was done tuning his own instrument, he waited a few beats before joining her in a near sinful harmony, creating a melody that even brought the unimpressible Coach out of his office to listen to it, nodding along and forgetting his clock as he listened to the two teens play.

•~•~•~•

Flopping down on his bed, Link let out a long, reverberating yawn that tickled the back of his throat as it passed. His flute case was still in his hand and shoes still on his feet, so he let his flute ease to the ground as he kicked his shoes off his feet then bed. He stared up at Charles' bunk bed above him, listening to the fellow orphan snore softly above him. He listened to him for a while before realizing that he was faking the snoring.

Making a face, Link kicked the bunk above him, and Charles let out a yelp. "Fucking hell, Link!" his Bunkie exclaimed. A second later his face could be seen, illuminated by the moonlight pouring in from the window, the white light of the moon that mixed with the unsettling yellow of the streetlamp outside their window and made something softer and newer than what was before. Charles posed a striking resemblance to Link, and they were near identical in looks if Charles' didn't have those freckles that plagued his face and his face only, or if Link didn't lack said plaguing freckles. They even grew up together, dropped off on the same day at the orphanage. The family who owned the orphanage suspected that they were in fact twins, though have never had the time nor money to have their DNA tested. Regardless, the two were like brothers to each other, and best friends.

"What?" Link asked innocently.

"I was trying to sleep!"

Link scoffed. "No you weren't. You were on your DS that Coach gave you."

Charles was silent for a little while, glowering. In a low voice that rumbled, he said "I was _trying_ to sleep, but then I couldn't, so I decided to play my game."

Nodding, Link laughed. "Thought so."

Charles sneered and in a nasally voice repeated Link, earning a thwack upside the head with the freckle-less boy's pillow. Laughing, Charles grabbed hold of the upper bunks catch-bar and eased himself down onto the ground. "So why'd you wake me up, huh?"

"I didn't wake you up if you were never asleep," Link pointed out. "And because I knew you were faking it."

Link's supposed brother huffed and sat down on the bottom bunk, nearly sitting on Link's outstretched legs if he hadn't swiveled to be sitting up cross-legged in time. "Whatever. How's your girlfriend doing?"

Link made a face, flicking Charles. _I swear_ , he thought, _sometimes he likes to pair us together more than anyone else does_. "She isn't my girlfriend. But, speaking of Sariah, Coach wants us to play her song for closing tomorrow night."

One of Charles' blonde eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You two are totally dating. And is it really that good? Her song?"

"We aren't," Link argued in par, "and yeah. Twenty minutes long, just her and I, cello and flute. Coach loved it."

"Did you guys come up with a name for it, yet?"

"We're just calling it _Sariah's_ _Song_."

"That's boring."

"You're boring."

"I know I am."

Link scoffed and shook his head. "Whatever, Charles."

He feigned hurt, gasping dramatically and placing a nimble-fingered hand to his chest. "Excccuuuuusssseeee me, princess, but did you just hint agreeance to my being boring?"

"Don't call me princess, Charles," Link grumbled, scowling at the memories it brought up. As kids, Charles would always call him princess because the young boy had a slightly more feminine flare than most boys their age, squealing at every bug and insect in sight before running away as his roommate came to save him, or squealing and jumping in excitement every time Coach came to take them out. He outgrew that by the time he was fifteen, but Charles never quite outgrew teasing him about it, even though the last time he had done it was two years ago. "And of course I would."

Charles snorted. "Whatever, Link. Can I sleep down here with you?"

The freckle-less boy smirked. Charles never liked sleeping alone, which was another reason why he had been awake when Link had laid down. He'd always been like that, and Link would always subtly tease him about it whenever he could.

Nodding, Link said "oh, yeah. Sure. I'll make sure the monsters don't get wittle Chawles tonight, okay?"

The aforementioned boy kicked Link at that, and stole his pillow. He laid down and put it beneath his head before it was stolen from him and underneath Link's head instead. "Your stuff, Charles," Link told him, laying down and getting comfortable, glad not for the first time that the bunk beds at their orphan homes were fulls.

Charles grumbled something sour and got up. He reached onto the top bunk and grabbed his blanket and pillow before settling down on Link's bed, head at the foot of the other's bed. He got comfortable before mumbling a small "night" and closing his eyes.

Link waited a little while until he could hear Charles snoring – and for real this time – before rolling onto his side, smiling to himself. Related or not, he loved Charles with a burning brotherly passion. He felt stronger with him around, more secure, and he didn't know why. But whatever it was, it must be in their blood, because Charles had reported the same thing before.

Smiling to himself again, Link settled down and closed his eyes, letting sleep engulf him


	2. Chapter 2

"Link…"

The voice whispering to him was unlike any the blonde teenager had heard before. He rubbed at his eyes tiredly, grumbling a small "I just fell asleep," before rolling over onto his side, grabbing at his pillow and pulling it closer before flopping his head onto it.

Immediately he yelped in surprise and quickly sat up, head pounding where he had just slammed it into a rock.

Wait.

A rock?

Looking around, Link realized he wasn't in his room, sharing his bed with Charles, anymore. He was in a forest, trees tall and more ancient looking than any tree the orphan boy had seen before. They were thick, branches reaching high into the sky above, casting soft shadows that danced every time a breeze ruffled the leaves that grew on the branches of the trees above. He caught brief glimpses of thin clouds flitting by between the leaves, but otherwise the sky was perfectly clear, as far as he could tell.

"Link…"

The voice whispered again, this time a bit further. Still looking around and rubbing his head, the blonde teen stood up, trying to gather his senses and figure out where he was, and, more importantly, why he was there. There were thick, overgrown bushes strewn across the forest floor, ivy growing up the sun washed remains of once elegantly chiseled pillars. Ruins? What was he doing here?

Looking down, Link saw the cracked remains of stone tiles. He bent down, pain in his head forgotten, and picked up a loose one with a grunt. He wiped away the dirt and frowned when he saw the faded remains of a song engraved in it. What kind of place was this to put music in their tiles?

Gently setting the tile down, he looked around once more. The forest was alive with noises, birds singing and squirrels occasionally screaming at one another when their nuts or other knickknacks were stolen. But there was one sound in particular he was looking for, one source, and he found it immediately.

She was kind of really hard to miss. Link didn't know why he hadn't seen her before. The one who had been whispering his name was an entity of some form, and it was obvious. Her skin and clothes were many shades of blue and purple, dancing and singing as did the shadows dance and leaves sing in the wind. It took Link awhile to find her eyes, since there were no defining lines between one feature to another, not even between her clothes and skin. She floated a few inches above the ground, one top of a flight of stairs that had fallen into disrepair.

Once Link had found her, she disappeared and reappeared beside the base of the stairs, startling Link.

"The fucking hell…" Link mumbled in awe, staring at the spectral in front of him. He heard it tell him to follow her, though her mouth didn't move, and he found himself obeying her wishes, though he was terrified out of his mind. His feet went into motion, and he began following her, trailing behind the floating spectral that would occasionally disappear and reappear as though she were a wisp, the remnants of a spirit long forgotten. She might have very well been one, as far as Link knew. He knew nothing about her, except that she was strange, and that she wanted him to follow her to wherever she was taking him.

As she led him about, Link realized that the ruins out front wasn't all that was there. This place must've been huge, because Link saw many piles of rubble, ginormous piles, and high above the roof was barely intact, held up by crumbling walls and pillars that would occasionally drop a few bits and particles when the wind rushed past them. He could see the sun now that he was inside the remnants of the building, and Link looked up, squinting against the brightness of it. He was startled to find it looked like a mask, and he froze. The hell was this place? Whatever it was, it intrigued Link, and, oddly, he felt at home.

Link looked back down to realize he had lost whatever spectral had been before him, and he frowned. He began to wander, running his hands over long forgotten engravings in the walls, whatever paint that was left coming off in flakes at the slightest of touches. He glanced a few broken panes of stained glass, and looked up to try and figure out where they might have been placed. But whatever wall they had been lain upon was gone, crumbled to waste. He tried to imagine the place with its full beauty, but it was a fruitless endeavor.

Sighing, Link gave up on his imagination and continued to look around. He spotted remnants of rooms, perhaps a giant kitchen, a grand dining hall, perhaps even a ballroom. Whatever room they may have been, they must have been beautiful. But now they created a maze for the teenage boy, and it was getting harder and harder to tell from which direction he had come from the more he went, twisting around fallen walls and walls still intact. But he didn't much care. There was something telling him to go the way he was going, pulling him, and urging him on as though it were a matter between life and death.

Coming to a set of stairs that, for the most part, were still in perfect functioning order, Link placed a foot lightly on the first step. A few pebbles came loose as he did, and he gradually applied more and more weight until he was sure he could continue. Placing a hand on the remainder of the rail, he continued up, slowly. The paintings lining the walls here were still intact, preserved well. So well, in fact that it still looked wet.

Link stared at the paintings, trying to decipher them. What were they of? Each one was labeled in a language Link did not understand, no matter how much he tried to compare it to modern English. In every painting, as cartoonish as they were, the same shape appeared – three golden triangles forming a greater, bigger golden triangle. There was some sort of blonde haired kid wearing an ugly green tunic in many of them, too, brandishing a mighty looking sword and shield. The shields were all branded with the same crest, though slightly different in each one to match whatever time they were in, and Link felt maybe that was the symbol of the land, for it, too, had the three gold triangles. The first one was the first to show the triangles, coming from the sky, carried by three streaks of color - red, green, and blue.

Running a hand over the paintings, Link frowned. There was something sinister about them. No matter how much the little guy in the green tunic was shown defeating an enemy, it seemed that it was cursed with repetition, as though whatever land this was couldn't stop repeating history. Over and over, the guy in the green tunic was shown slaying an enemy, finding a beautiful girl whom Link presumed was a princess, and then darkness again. The hero was slain. The bad guy won. Over and over. Until he reached the last one.

In this one, the bad guy was slain. The boy in the green tunic lay dead next to him. And the princess…

The painting showed an overwhelming amount of death. Everybody was dead. Bystanders, villains, merchants, criminals. Everybody. No exclusion. The only things that appeared to be living were the three colors in the first painting, finally returning after what seemed a millions depictions of ruins and death, a million years. They had bodies, now, though they were faint in color, as though they, too, were dying. They held a small child in their arms, one for each of the floating colored women. Each child lacked detail, though all three of them had a triangle on their forehead. The three triangles. And on each one, only one seemed to glow, each special to the child's forehead they glowed upon.

Link reached out to touch the final painting, but a shriek from behind him caught him off guard, and his hand jerked back, and then so was he. Next thing he knew, he was waking up in his bed in the orphanage, tangled up in his blankets with a little girl bouncing on him.

"Link!" the girl exclaimed excitedly, continuing to bounce on the blonde boy. Her light brown pigtails were bouncing along with her movements, and Link feared whiplash just by watching them bounce. Her large green eyes were wide, and a large grin plastered her face. "Link Link Link Link Link Link Link! Guess what day it is! Guess what day it is!"

Groaning, Link gently pushed her off to sit up, rubbing his face. _What was that_ …? He silently thought, trying to recall every detail of his dream, but all of it slipped his wanting grasp. All details, save for the last thing he saw. Shaking his head, Link decided to just forget about the dream. He noticed Charles was sitting up on his bed as well, grumbling something sourly as he rubbed at his eyes, back against the foot board. Link felt a slight gratitude at being in his room with his brother, though he was no longer sure why.

Pushing away the feeling, he turned to the little girl who was still bouncing on his bed. "What, Navi?" he grumbled a little sourly, though it was unintentional.

She didn't seem to notice his sourness, because her impossibly wide grin managed to widen even more. "It's opening night tonight!" She exclaimed, bouncing even more. "Two more hours, and it's time!"

Link stared at her for a little while before speaking. "Why are you waking me up, now, of all times?"

"Because Coach didn't want you to be late!"

Link grumbled something sour, nearly haven forgotten that Coach knew the little girl named Navi as well. She was actually related to him, though. Indirectly, but she was. She wasn't an orphan like Link and Charles were, but the orphanage home people didn't much care that she came and went as she pleased, just like they didn't much care what Link and Charles and the other boys in their home were doing just as long as they got their chores done on time and without complaint, were getting decent grades in school, weren't bringing any drugs or alcohol into the house, and were following common household rules such as no eating in their bedrooms. Otherwise, they didn't much care what went on in their house, and Link and Charles loved it.

Navi frowned when he grumbled his sour reply, though he knew she couldn't hear it. "Come on, Link!" She exclaimed. "You're always late! Everybody doesn't want you to be late this time, so you have to get up!"

"I _am_ up," he retorted. "Kind of hard not to be when an annoying little girl is bouncing on me."

Charles laughed at that, and he shook his head. "I regret sleeping down here, now. Damn it, Link. You should have told me your personal alarm was going to come and wake us up. If I'd known, I would've slept on my bed."

" _I_ didn't even know, Charles," Link grumbled. He sighed and rubbed at his face to clear his sleep vision before nodding. "Alright, alright," he said. "I'm up. I'll go get ready to go, now. Just get off of me and then I can get ready."

Navi grinned once more and nodded. She hopped off of Link and onto Charles, who groaned loudly in response to the unexpected weight before she hopped off of him and onto the floor. "I'm going to go play with Colton! He always lets me play with him! I'll see you two later!" And with that, the nine year old girl was off, pigtails flying in the wind behind her.

Both Charles and Link stared after her in silence before Charles finally decided to break it. "Brat left the door open," he grumbled. Heaving a heavy sigh, Link's presumed brother tossed aside his covers and went over to the door, closing it. Link chuckled at his antics before he, too, got off his bed.

"She's a handful, that one," he mused. "Surprised Coach puts up with her."

"Link," Charles said dryly as his brother went over to their closet to pick out his suit that Coach had gotten him last year for sophomore year homecoming.

"Mmm, yeah?" The blonde and freckle-less boy asked his presumed freckled brother.

"You do realize that she is _exactly_ like you when you were her age? Also, that one's mine, ya moron. Yours you got ruined, remember?"

Link frowned. "No I wasn't. And this one's mine, see? This string right here, this long one-"

"Is the same string I complained about wearing it. And yes you were."

"No I wasn't," Link argued again. "And anyways. You don't need to wear a suit today. You're just sitting in the audience and watching me play. Can't I wear this?"

It was obvious Charles didn't like the idea of Link wearing his clothes, but eventually he complied, and the blonde teen grinned. "But you better not ruin it like you had yours."

"It's not my fault somebody had brought me a smoothie!"

"It _is_ your fault that you managed to get it all over the suit."

Link waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, whatever. I'm going to go take a shower and get dressed. Coach wants us all to look our best when we get there, and I haven't showered in a week."

Charles made a face, nose crinkling and freckles crinkling with it, somehow managing to make the red sprinkles coating his pasty white skin stand out more. "That's nasty, Link. Go take a damn shower. No wonder it smells like BO in here," he grumbled before he tossed on a shirt, having had slept in a pair of shorts last night, and slipped on his shoes. "I'll see you there," he told his supposed brother before leaving their shared room.

•~•~•~•

"You look nervous, Link," Sariah noted, pointing out the obvious as she fixed her forest green one sleeve dress, straightening it out before going to Link and turning around, giving him her back.

"Of course I'm nervous, Sariah," he said, situating his flute beneath his chin before reaching out and zipping up Sariah's dress for her before he grabbed his flute once more. "This'll be my first time ever being in front of a crowd."

"Thanks," she said, pulling her long hair over her shoulder and turning back around. Link finally noticed that her bangs weren't entirely green, but the tips were, and they faded into her brown hair beautifully. He realized for the first time just how beautiful Sariah was, and he thought, maybe Charles was right and that they should start dating. They were pretty close as friends. The blonde boy considered her his best friend next to Charles.

He blinked when he noticed her frown. Furrowing his brows quizzically, Sariah scoffed and shook her head.

"You really do never pay attention, do you, Link?"

He cocked a lopsided grin. "If I did, there'd be less adventure."

"Whatever, Link," Sariah said in slight annoyance, though he knew it was fake by the way she had playfully rolled her eyes.

"I hope yall are ready to go," a deep voice suddenly said from behind him.

Link jumped, startled by the sudden appearance of Coach behind him. He turned around and saw Coach in a suit as well, which was odd as the blonde teen had never seen him in one before. It fit him nicely, sort of. Kind of looked strained every time he moved his well-muscled arms, which was understandable considering how much muscle the guy had.

Sariah looked just as startled as Link did by Coach's appearance, though he brushed that off as nervousness in front of a superior. "Y-yes, Coach," she said before Link could speak. "We're ready."

Coach nodded, his eyes gleaming. "Just as well," he said, accent gone, a sure sign that he was certain of whatever was going to happen tonight wasn't worth stressing over. "You two should go practice in the back room. Neither of you will be on for another half hour, so I'd get to practicing."

"Wait wait wait," Link said, holding up a finger. "You rearranged the order?"

Coach shook his massive head. "I just took the two of you out of it for a few moments."

"Oh, okay, then." Link appeared satisfied by Coach's answer, though Sariah didn't. She was once more nervously biting at the corner of her lip, though Link couldn't fathom why. She was a natural in front of crowds, as though they gave her life and new energy. She had nothing to be worried about. …Unless she was worried about Link coming in and ruining everything, then, yeah, she had reason to worry.

Coach didn't seem to notice Sariah's reaction, since he nodded and turned around to the rest of their group. "Curtains open in ten! Everybody in position!" He shouted before leaving the stage to go to his podium in front of it.

Link turned to Sariah and nudged her a little. "Come on," he said, nudging her a little more. "Let's go practice.

"Link," she whispered, barely audible to the blonde behind her as he guided her to the back room. "I have a terrible, terrible feeling about this."

"There's nothing to worry about! And with your song, we'll get _so_ much love. Now come on!" He grabbed her hand and began to pull her along, barely allowing her time to grab her cello case as he did, Sariah begrudgingly following him, though he was unsure if it was due to her earlier nerves or because he was being annoyingly peppy all of a sudden. But whatever the case, what she had said earlier really settled heavy on the blonde teen, and he had a sudden flash of the final painting from his memory, though it was gone just as quickly as it had come. He brushed it off, though, and continued to pull her to the backroom, suddenly near bursting with excitement that he could no longer seem to contain, his earlier nerves forgotten.

"Link!" Sarah yelped as he pulled her.

He sent her a grin. "Yes?"

"Slow down!"

"Ugh, fine. _You_ can slow down, but _I'm_ running." He released her hand and continued to the closet, until a loud, sudden explosion from behind threw him off his feet and sprawling onto the ground with a loud yelp. He scrambled to his feet afterward, turning around and seeing a fire blazing from the back auditorium doors. Eye's wide, he stared. "What...?"

Sariah was staring as well, her eyes equally wide and mouth agape. "Oh no," she breathed. "It's starting."

...

 **Updates are every month on the second** **Tuesday! :3 Today is an oddity, yes... I have little to no time... ;3;**


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